Engaging Middle & High School Real World Math Projects are here! I am a seller on TeachersPayTeachers.com and plan to use this blog to share my experiences in the classroom and elaborate on the application of my 21st Century Math Projects. Use my ideas or if you're busy, buy a lesson :-)

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Saturday, December 8, 2012

Person Puzzles -- John Herrington

The latest release to 21st Century Math Project -- A Person Puzzle! I came across a handout similar to this earlier in the year and found that my students really enjoyed it so I decided to go insane with it. It's necessary to practice skills, but why not throw some interdisciplinary connection in there for fun?

Bring to life the traditional practice class or homework assignment with some global competency and diversity! While your students practice solving equations with variables on both sides, they can learn about the interesting life of John Herrington, the first Native American to fly in space. Person Puzzles are designed to highlight individuals with diverse backgrounds who have made significant contributions to our world. In my experience, our students are underexposed and unaware of many significant (historical or current) figures and this is a an easy way a math teacher can throw some interdisciplinary content without sacrificing their math!

My name is John Herrington and I approve this
Person Puzzle! Not really. I haven't contacted Mr.
Herrington and hope that he's comfortable being
the subject of a Puzzle. Fingers crossed.

Students enjoy the person puzzles because they innately like figuring out these type of facts and enjoy learning about someone interesting and different. I typically use Person Puzzles as timed warm-ups which allows me to share a little about the person's background before my daily lesson. I can also drop some college readiness info like majors, degrees and careers!Stay Tuned. More Person Puzzles are coming!
You can also get the Interactive & Customizable Version of Person Puzzles entire collection at my NextLesson.org store and optionally customize it for your needs.